Agricultural land and buffers on the Chester River in Kent 

County, Maryland.

Seventy percent of the land in the United States is privately 

owned, making stewardship by farmers, ranchers and forest 

landowners absolutely critical to the health of our Nation’s 

environment. These people make day-to-day decisions 

about natural resource use and management on non-federal 

lands, and NRCS offers them the technology, technical 

and financial assistance needed to benefit the resources, 

resulting in productive lands while maintaining healthy 

ecosystems. 

NRCS provides technical assistance to implement our 

programs and offers financial assistance to producers 

who install conservation practices. Technical assistance 

is provided to producers using both discretionary and 

mandatory funds. Discretionary funds provided through the 

Conservation Technical Assistance (CTA) or CTA line item 

pay for staff, vehicles, computers, and on-farm conservation 

planning to identify resource concerns. NRCS also provides 

conservation plans to producers. Once a producer has a 

conservation plan, they can move forward without further 

assistance from NRCS. 

When a producer chooses to work in partnership with NRCS, 

a contract is drawn. Funds to carry out the contract include 

technical and financial assistance from mandatory Farm Bill 

program funds. Technical assistance from Farm Bill program 

funds is used when an individual has signed up for a specific 

conservation program and detailed planning is needed to 

implement an identified conservation practice. Financial 

assistance is provided to the producer to help defray some 

of the cost of installing the conservation practice. 

CONSERVING NATURAL RESOURCES 

IN MARYLAND

Photo: Jane Thomas, Integration and Application Network (ian.umces.edu/imagelibrary/).

FY 2013 Highest funded Conservation Practices

1. Waste Storage

2. Heavy Use Area Protection

3. Amendments for the Treatment of Agricultural Waste

4. Nutrient Management

5. Restoration or Management of Rare or Declining 

Habitats

April 2013

Maryland Quick Facts:

Number of NRCS Employees = 81

Number of NRCS Field Offices = 23

Acres of Farmland = 2 million or 32.8% of the state

Acres of Cropland = 1.4 million 

Acres of Forestland = 400,000
www.nrcs.usda.gov

USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.

JON HALL

State Conservationist

443-482-2904

jon.hall@md.usda.gov

www.md.nrcs.usda.gov

FY 2012 and FY 2013 Contracts and Financial Assistance to Maryland Participants by Program

Discretionary funds through the Conservation Technical Sources: FMMI, ProTracts 12/5/2013 & NEST 10/21/2013

Assistance for Maryland in FY 2013 was $4,317,816

Program Number of Contracts Financial Assistance Dollars $

 FY 2012 FY 2013 FY 2012 FY 2013

Agricultural Management Assistance 13 5 79,000 62,671

Chesapeake Bay Watershed Initiative 183 214 7,515,000 10,402,491

Conservation Stewardship Program 10 7 1,051,000 1,095,304

Environmental Quality Incentives Program 311 278 8,129,000 6,547,689

Wetlands Reserve Program 14 9 5,654,000 3,787,360

Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program 1 12 57,000 293,082

Grand Total 536 536 23,558,000 22,188,598

NRCS FY 2013 Percentage of Financial Assistance to Maryland Participants by Program

0%

47%

5%

30%

1% 17% AMA

CBWI

CSTP

EQIP

WHIP

WRP

NRCS AT WORK: MARYLAND